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Author
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Topic: New Issue of PCID: Volume 2.3, Philosophy of Mind
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RBH
Member
Member # 380
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posted 09. December 2003 13:43
Apropos of this topic, today's NYTimes Science section's featured article is "Humanity? Maybe It's in the Wiring." (The link requires free registration.)
A few excerpts: quote:
Most recently [neuroscientists] have been investigating circuitry rather than specific locations, looking at pathways and connections that are central in creating social emotions, a moral sense, even the feeling of free will.
and quote:
The body, it turns out, is as important as the brain. Dr. Antonio Damasio, a neurologist at the University of Iowa Medical Center and the author of the book "Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain," has pioneered the argument that emotions and feelings are linked to brain structures that map the body. From human social emotions, he said, both morality and reason have grown.
and quote:
In scores of brain studies, this part [right anterior insula] of the insula is activated when we recall sadness or anger, anticipate pain, feel panic or become sexually aroused or have an emotional response to music. It lights up when people view or imitate emotional expressions in others. And in one study it showed activity when people experienced the pain of being socially excluded.
Clearly these are correlational claims, linking brain states and structures to first person experiences. But they illustrate how far into that first-person data one can link it to brain structures and states.
RBH
[ 09. December 2003, 15:03: Message edited by: RBH ]
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